Knowledge that heals
At last, a database to thwart drug overprescribing
At last, the state has established a database for doctors and other medical professionals to consult before writing prescriptions for narcotics. Listing the medications already prescribed for patients, the database is supposed to guard against the over-dispensing of drugs that can turn the sick and injured into addicts or continue supplying those already in addiction.
Pennsylvania, regrettably, was the 49th state to establish this important tool. Now, the state should promptly consider other measures to combat an opioid crisis that kills about 10 Pennsylvanians a day and continues to cut short other lives nationwide.
In its series “Overdosed,” the PostGazette explained the rise of the epidemic, the role doctors played in the overprescription of narcotics, other states’ experiences with prescription databases and Pennsylvania’s sluggish pursuit of problem doctors. In a story Friday, staff writers Rich Lord and Adam Smeltz reported that 20,000 prescribers so far have signed up to access the confidential database, which went live Thursday.
Use of the database will help prescribers evaluate a person’s risk for addiction and advocate rehabilitation for those needing help. It also should deter the doctor-shopping some patients resort to after becoming hooked. Other states have shown that the databases are helpful but not perfect; patients denied narcotics may gravitate to heroin or other street drugs instead. That is why other steps are needed to stem the tide of addiction.
The state boards regulating pharmacies and doctors already have issued guidelines to tighten availability, the latter having recommended limiting their use in hospital emergency departments and for pain unrelated to cancer. The state should link its database to other states’ to prevent cross-border doctor-shopping.
During a meeting Wednesday at the Post-Gazette, state Rep. Mike Sturla, the Democratic policy chairman from Lancaster County, cited a need to let doctors, not insurance companies, dictate the length of inpatient recovery programs. He said long-term recovery programs for doctors and airline pilots have much higher success rates than the shortterm programs available to the general population. Doing the job right the first time and preventing relapses, he correctly said, is better for everyone.
Mr. Sturla said insurance companies must be forced to provide the same coverage levels for behavioral health care as they do physical health care.
In addition, he said the state needs more inpatient and outpatient treatment slots and must incentivize more counties to establish drug courts, such as the one in Allegheny County, which adjudicate criminal cases with as much of an eye on treatment as punishment. There is a chance the Legislature will begin dealing with these issues as early as the fall.
Time is of the essence. In many ways, Pennsylvania already is behind in fighting the opioid scourge. There is no pride in being the 49th state to establish a prescription database and no justice in allowing those afflicted by addiction to continue their downward spiral because of the legislative calendar.